Shibuya + a whole bunch of other things

Today was a very wet day, which made for some uncomfortable walking, but some beautiful imagery.

As mentioned earlier, I had intended on visiting the Imperial Palace East Gardens today, but they are closed on Fridays, so I had to settle for Shibuya and its surrounding area instead. This involved me having to use the JR Rail system for the first time. My hotel is not very far from the train station at all, maybe a 5 minute walk tops, so that is very convenient.

At first I was very intimidated by the rail system, but really it is quite easy and inexpensive to use. When I first arrived at the train station, I must have spent a good 20+ minutes just staring at the various service maps, as well as watching people buy their tickets. Here is a map of the various lines running throughout the city.














Fares are different depending on the location you're going to. The location I was planning to visit today was Shibuya, which was the next stop from Shinjuku. Fare was 150 yen(though there are fare adjustment machines at every stop if you pay too much or too little).

Shibuya truely is something else. I was expecting it too be very much like Shinjuku, but it isn't. There are so many giant department stores here, it is unbelievable. The two biggest ones are Seibu and Tokyu, though there are countless others as well.















Immediately outside of the train station, there is some statues of a dog named Hachiko. From what I've heard, the dog was a real dog who accompanied his master to the train station every day, and wait for him to return from work. The dog would do this every day, until his master died. It then continued to go to the station and wait for his master, everyday, until he himself died. Now, they even have an exit of the train station named after him.















I walked heading for a museum called the Electric Energy Museum. When I arrived at where my map said it should be, I couldn't find it. I must have looked very silly circling around looking for it, because a young Tokyoite approached me and asked if I was ok. I told him I what I was looking for, and he pointed right behind me. I was standing right next to the museum. I thanked him, and he walked me over to the door. The museum was pretty nice, though unfortunately pictures were not allowed. Of special interest was that they were doing cooking demonstrations on the 4th floor. They also had an exhibit and demonstration on robot dogs.

After I left the museum, I continued north. I ended up walking by the NHK broadcasting center. It was quite an impressive building.















I continued north, past the studio. Not much further, I began seeing a strange looking building. Once I got closer, I stopped an elderly Japanese building and asked her what that building was. She proudly told me it was the Yoyogi Kyogijo, which was a stadium built for the 1964 olympics.














The destination I was heading for was the Meiji jingu, a shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, whom single-handedly ended the feudal era of Japan. The area surrounding the shrine is basically a forest. At the enterence to the forest is a large torii.















Beyond that gate, there is a large wooded area. The path to the shrine is very long. It took me about 30 minutes to walk. There is a lot to see, however. For example, about 300 feet along the path, I came across a large rack of barrels. They are barrels of wine that were sent from around the world to Emperor Meiji.















Continuing along the path, I eventually came across a garden that had been a favorite of Emperor Meiji and his wife. Unfortunately none of the flowers (of which the irises were suppose to be the most popular) were in bloom, but there was a pond there that was very pretty.














There was also a tea house inside the garden. The tea house had been constructed under orders from Meiji. Unfortunately the one there today is just a replica, because it had been destroyed during WW2.















As I got closer to the shrine, I found myself face to face with an absolutely gigantic torii, called the ootorii. According to a sign nearby, it is the biggest torii in the world, and was made out of 1500 year old trees.















Not much further, is the Shrine. There were a lot of people there today, paying their respects. A large gate surrounds the shrine proper.















This is what the inside of the shrine looked like. I asked a nearby guard if it would be ok if I could film. He said I could, though I could sense some frustration.
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After leaving the shrine, I made north for the nearby Imperial Treasures museum. Unfortunately it was closed, though, so I couldn't see it. After that, I headed northwest for the Japanese Sword museum. It was pretty far away, and buried deep within small, one lane roads.















Eventually I found the museum, however. The museum. was composed of two floors. The first floor served as an enterence, but also had a few displays. Most notable was a chart showing Japanese swords at different eras, as well as a display of what a sword looks like at different points during its forging.















The second floor was the main exhibit, and cost about 350 yen to enter (The attendant gave me the student rate). Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but it was an amazing gallary. Around 40-50 swords were on display, 6 of which were classified as national treasures, the rest classified as "Important Cultural artifacts". The swords were dated between 11th century and 18th century, and many of them were without handles(the wood has long since rotted). However, a few of the swords had retained their handles. One sword in particular's handle was made of pearls, and had a gold hand guard (that one was a national treasure). Other notable facts is that the collection had swords that were created by legendary sword smiths Murasame and Masamune, who are considered the greatest swordsmiths to ever live on this planet.

After leaving the sword museum, I decided to head back to Shibuya propper, since I had blown past it in order to get to the Shrine and museums before they closed. It was now the late afternoon, and the streets were flooded with people. I went into a few of the department stores, but the store I spent the most time in was Tower Records.














Tower Records Shibuya consists of 7 floors, each one having a different specialty. The first floor was for new releases, both Japanese and Western. The second floor was for domestic releases, third floor was for international releases. 4th floor was for movies and soundtracks, 5th floor was for country, 6th floor was classical, and the 7th floor was a bookstore. Western CDs cost about 1000 yen less then their Japanese counterparts, which I have no idea why. I nearly bought a few CDs. Curiously enough, in the soundtrack section, there was an entire section dedicated to just video game music. And while there were many expected soundtracks, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc, I was shocked to find the soundtracks to some obscure games such as the entire Romancing SaGa series and Professor Layton.

After checking out a few more department stores, it was now quite late, so I decided to head back to my hotel room for some rest. I had heard horror stories about how crowded the trains are in the evening, and while the train was certainly crowded, it wasn't so bad that we had to be shoved in.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures of Shibuya!
























































Tomorrow I may visit the Imperial Palace and surrounding area, but it depends on a few factors. Tomorrow MIGHT be a National Holiday here, so if it is, that won't be an option, as the area around the palace will be closed.